Sunday, June 13, 2010

College Basketball: Five Biggest Upsets of the 2009-10 Season

This college basketball
season was jam-packed with enormous talent, surprises, and
most importantly, competitiveness. I always like those mid-major teams
playing the No.1 team in the nation. It's always seems like they give top-tier
talent all they got. Or it's other's that will give the top teams something to
remember.

Whatever, size, shape or
form, there were a lot of upsets this season. Here are the top five:

1. Northern Iowa defeats Kansas, 69-67

This was possibly the biggest upset the NCAA tournament has EVER seen. Northern Iowa, the team that nobody gave a chance.

The Jayhawks came in as the No. 1 overall seed, so i could understand why nobody would predict any kind of struggle with a team like Northern Iowa. But that's where the old saying comes in at, "That's why we play the game."

Ali Farokhmanesh or as some say, "The Jayhawk killer" took a gutsy shot with less than a minute left to play.

After that, the game was history. That was a gut-check to the whole Jayhawk nation, including the whole college basketball family.

2. South Carolina Gamecocks defeats No. 1 KentuckyThis was Kentucky's first spill as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation. They weren't able to hold that tag for long, and loss to the Gamecocks after a magical performance by Devan Downey. It seemed to me like the Wildcats came into this game with a huge chip on their shoulder. Matter of fact, it seemed more like they were still trying to soak in that they were the No. 1 team in the nation.

3. Tennessee defeats No. 1 Kansas

This was so huge of an upset because this was the stage when Bruce Pearl was without four starters. His starters pulled off some crazy stuff, and his best player Tyler Smith was even dismissed from the team , leaving them with not much to hope for. However, if you have heart, you can do anything. And that's exactly what happened here. It wasn't the players on the roster, it was the walk-ons that saved the day.

4. Syracuse lose to Louisville TWICE

The first time around, Louisville was in need of a marquee win to solidify it's tournament resume. Early on, they looked like a team on a mission. They later ended the first half with an edge and later went on to win the game after a defensive stop on former-Syracuse standout, Wesley Johnson.

In the second game, it was all about Kyle Kuric. Rick Pitino was forced to strecth his bench after his senior went down with a hand injury, and the offense actually looked better than ever. Kuric knocked down crucial three's, made key plays on offense, defense, and dominated the game.

First Game

Second Game

5. Murray State defeats Vanderbilt

No. 13 Murray State was never given a chance in this game. However, they stuck around and kept this game competitive throughout. As a result, they recieved a shot like that. This advanced them to the second round where they would eventually lose.